Women’s Lives – Feminist Film and the East End

Films of Resistance: Experimental Community Cinema in Bethnal Green

Join Four Corners and Dr Hollie Price from Keele University in St Margaret’s House Chapel for the first in a series of screenings and conversations exploring the radical history of filmmaking on Roman Road.

In the 1970s and 80s, filmmakers cooperative Four Corners created experimental films whilst running a community cinema and film workshops from their premises – a former grocer’s shop on Roman Road.

These events are inspired by some of the issues addressed in Four Corners' early projects, including women's lives, allotment spaces, experiences of migration, and youth culture. They explore these themes in dialogue with the present-day and reflect on how they continue to resonate with people living in Tower Hamlets and neighbouring boroughs today.

Women’s Lives – Feminist Film & the East End

We will be screening Bred and Born (Joanna Davis & Mary Pat Leece, Four Corners, 1983) together with two short films focusing on women and girls that were shown in Four Corners' cinema in the 1980s.

Bred and Born (1983) is an experimental documentary exploring women’s roles in the family. It was made by Joanna Davis and Mary Pat Leece in collaboration with women living in the East End over a period of four years, and its production was shaped by local film screenings and discussion groups focusing on women’s lives and their representations. With feminist film and video distributor Circles based in the same building, feminist film programming formed an influential part of Four Corners’ work building audiences for feminist cinema in the 1970s and 80s, which continued for many years afterwards.

The films will be followed by a conversation with Selina Robertson (Club des Femmes/Birkbeck), Bev Zalcock (feminist filmmaker and scholar, who appears in Bred and Born) and Kareyni Davis (Backronym Films), closing with a drinks reception.

Further information

2025 marks Four Corners' 50th anniversary. You can explore our early history at Four Corners Archive and find out more about our work today here.

This series of events is part of the ‘Four Corners Film Workshop: Independent Filmmaking and Exhibition in East London, 1975-90’ research project led by Dr Hollie Price at Keele University in partnership with Four Corners, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Host or Publisher Four Corners